If you're reading this online, you're fine — malware deadline passes, few... | tutchiegrant | Social Bookmarking .Net

If you're reading this online, you're fine — malware deadline passes, few... | tutchiegrant | Social Bookmarking .Net

WASHINGTON — If you're reading this online, you're fine. The day that was supposed to see thousands of people knocked off the Internet has arrived, but only a few people were affected.

Thousands of Internet users across the U.S. and beyond waited too long or simply didn't believe warnings that they would lose access to the Internet just after midnight because of malware that took over computers around the world more than a year ago.

At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, the FBI turned off Internet servers that were functioning as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. A court order the agency had gotten to keep the servers running expired, and was not renewed.

FBI officials have been tracking the number of computers they believe still may be infected by the malware. As of Sunday night, there were about 41,800 in the U.S., down from 45,600 on July 4. Worldwide, the total is roughly 211,000 infected. An estimated 2.3 billion people around the world use the Internet, according to Internet World Stats.

Considering that there are millions of Internet users across the country, several thousand losing access isn't a big deal — unless you are one of them.

As the deadline approached, Internet service providers such as AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. set up their own safety nets to allow the affected computers to continue to access the Internet.

AT&T said only a "small percentage" of its customers were affected by the virus. To make sure they can continue to access the Internet, the company will maintain legitimate Internet servers for them through the end of the year.